Pomalidomide, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients in a real-life setting: a single-center retrospective study

Pomalidomide dexamethasone is a standard of care for relapsed multiple myeloma (MM) patients who received at least two prior lines of therapy, including both lenalidomide and proteasome inhibitors (PI). We report here a real-life single-center series of 49 consecutive patients with relapsed and refractory MM treated with the triplet pomalidomide cyclophosphamide dexamethasone (PCD) combination. The median of prior lines of therapy was 3 and all patients were previously exposed to proteasome inhibitors and lenalidomide. The overall response rate was 76%, including 27% very good partial response or better. With a median follow-up of 16 months, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 7.3 months and the median overall survival was not reached. Regarding safety, most frequent toxicity was hematologic, including 37% grade 3-4 cytopenias. Nine patients (18%) discontinued therapy due to adverse event. Our study confirms that PCD combination is feasible and results in favorable response rate and PFS in comparison with pomalidomide dexamethasone alone.

[Primary pancreatic plasmacytoma]

Extramedullary plasmacytomas are uncommon malignant plasma cell tumors that present outside the bone marrow; 80% of extramedullary plasmacytomas are located in the upper respiratory tract, and gastrointestinal plasmacytomas are rare. We present the case of an asymptomatic 65-year-old man in whom a pancreatic mass was found incidentally. The lesion was determined to be a pancreatic plasmacytoma after fine-needle aspiration cytology and surgical resection. No clinical, laboratory, or imaging findings indicative of multiple myeloma or association with other plasmacytomas were found, so the tumor was considered to be a primary pancreatic plasmacytoma.